"Thought I heard a noise," he told himself by way of excuse for his action. "Wonder if Old Queen's loose?" He felt his way along the manger carefully. Unaccustomed to midnight visitors, Queen snorted and shrank from his hand when he touched her. "Whoa, there! You needn't be so blamed 'fraid--nothin's goin' t' hurt you. You ain't a woman." Silas found a nail-keg and sat down on it across from the nibbling horses, and thought and waited. "He's there by this time," he murmured presently. "Wisht they'd 'a' sent for Liza Ann. No, I guess it's better not. She wouldn't know what t' do, havin' no experience." He debated with himself as to whether he should go back to bed or not. "Couldn't sleep," he concluded. "Lord! how long the nights is when a feller's awake!" The horses ate on uninterruptedly and the soft breeze stole through the old barn, while everything in nature was indicative of peace except the old man, whose mind worked relentlessly on the situation of the young wife whose certain suffering racked him almost as much as if he had stood in its presence. "Gosh-a-livin's!" he exclaimed as a new thought struck him. "I wonder which one of 'em Jake got. Now that young Doc Stubbins ain't got no more sense 'n a louse. I ought t' 'a' told John an' I forgot. Lord! Lord! th' chances th' poor critters have t' take!" Mrs. Chamberlain was awakened in the gray light of morning as her husband crept shivering into bed. "Where you been?" she asked. "Out t' th' barn. Heard a noise an' thought I'd better look into it," was Silas's reply. * * * * * As the sun rose the new life was ushered in. Doctor Morgan did not start home till after nine o'clock. "Who is to have charge of your wife, Mr. Hunter?" he asked as he paused in the door and looked back at his patient anxiously. Seven miles was a long distance--and she might need him suddenly. "Why, I thought Hepsie and I could care for her," John replied. Trained nurses were unheard of in those days. "It simply cannot be," answered the old man. (Doctor Stubbins had not been engaged.) "Another attack like this last one would--well, you _must_ have some one of experience here. It's a matter of life or death--at least it might be," he added under his breath. "Couldn't you stay?" he asked Susan Hornby, who sat with the baby on her knee. "The girl's liable to slip away from us before I could get here."